Personal Finance Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of October 26, 2018 |
- Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of October 26, 2018
- I Just Got Fired: The Importance of Savings
- It's okay to let go, you can have both wants and needs
- I just finished paying off $96k in debt, it only took four years.
- Inherited enough to pay off home. Do that or invest for growth?
- My Family is Getting Kicked Out
- How do I pay taxes for money I make from selling adult content? Am I a small business now?
- 19 and finally stress free
- Is opening an IRA with a credit union or bank the same as opening an IRA with a brokerage firm (e.g. Fidelity, Vanguard, BlackRock, etc.)?
- Pregnant wife let go with one month severance, is unemployment an option?
- Someone paid for their Uber with my Chase credit card through Paypal
- Should I spend my $20k in savings on student loans or don’t touch it?
- 19 and want to move out of my parent's house
- Why are index funds the go to long term investments?
- Getting married soon, I'm an aggressive budgeter but my SO is not
- Starting life at 30 and need advice on a car situation. Any help is greatly appreciated!!
- Been broke my whole life. New job is a total game changer for me. How should I prioritize?
- So I took out a loan originally for $2,000 and an interest rate of 25.21% and APR of 29.93% to transfer my balance from my credit cards. I save about $50 a month which is what I wanted and needed but should I look for a loan with a lower interest rate. That seems high to me.
- [CA] In practice, how much more well-protected are 401k plans compared to IRAs?
- Moved to US, sold my car from back home, best way to transfer the money?
- Employer didnt add my shift differential pay to my check, which puts me in a situation where I cant afford my 1st of the month bills or food. They said I have to wait until next pay period and they will add it on.
- Currently homeless, about to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy (OR)
- When is a credit card considered delinquent?
- Warnings/Advice for 19 y/o with Future Student Debt?
- Married with two 401k's and one 457? Max out three (3) x $18.5k per year?
| Weekend Discussion and Victory Thread for the week of October 26, 2018 Posted: 26 Oct 2018 02:05 PM PDT If you need help, please check the PF Wiki to see if your question might be answered there.This thread is for personal finance discussions, questions, and sharing your success stories:
A big thank you to the many PFers who take time to answer other people's questions! For past threads, please search the Weekly Archive. [link] [comments]  |
| I Just Got Fired: The Importance of Savings Posted: 26 Oct 2018 10:58 AM PDT Hey guys. I was literally fired less than hour ago, and this subreddit is the first "person" I'm telling. I just want to point out how incredibly important savings are. I am 24, and this was my first real job. I am fortunate to have saved $5,000 in savings (enough for about 4 to 5 months expenses) and that isnt even considering unemployment and my last check. This is a huge reason why I didn't cry when I was fired lol. It didn't feel like my livlihood was gone. That is all, just a PSA. Edit: Thank you all for the comments and support, I really appreciate you all! Edit 2: As the comments have pointed out, I was laid off and not fired! I appreciate the distinction now [link] [comments]  |
| It's okay to let go, you can have both wants and needs Posted: 26 Oct 2018 12:11 PM PDT I felt like this was important to share, I spend a lot of time reading this sub and see either people in far worse situations than myself or far better. I feel like every time I leave here though I feel like I'm not doing right by my money or my family and that every penny I have should be going towards something other than what I have. My wife and I have a healthy savings and live in the country, so a very low COL situation. We contribute to our 401ks, we have zero debt, we try to do everything right and most of the time feel like we are. Every now and then we feel like we want to do something big with the money we have saved, an addition, a special trip, a new vehicle, etc, but we always talk ourselves out of it because we don't NEED it, we only WANT it. The biggest one for me has always been wanting a pickup truck. I am pretty avid outdoorsman, I hunt, I hike, we spend almost every weekend up north, but until recently my job has always been in the cities and it just seemed stupid to throw money away on the gas mileage driving a pickup. Within the last year I got to move to working from home, but even then getting a truck just was still a want, never a need. My FIL has a pickup, so if I need to have one I could ask to borrow his. My wife has a jeep so we can haul the recycling/medium sized things easily enough. I even got away with hauling my deer in it last year, much to her dismay. With my 30th birthday around the corner I finally said enough and started shopping for a used truck. There was no point to drop $25-30k on a newer truck since I'd be keeping my car, but I was able to find a really nice one for under $10k and even tried to talk myself out of it about 15 times, but finally pulled the trigger. It feels a bit reckless, a big luxurious, a bit unnecessary but it didn't break the bank and I love the heck out of it. Long story short, don't feel hamstrung to only save, save, save. It's alright to let go a little bit and enjoy the fruits of your labor before you reach retirement! [link] [comments]  |
| I just finished paying off $96k in debt, it only took four years. Posted: 26 Oct 2018 07:48 PM PDT We incurred an unexpected $96k debt four years ago. It was a bonus that I received after leaving the military that we ended up having to pay back. The IRS was going to garnish our wages, etc, it was a nightmare. With a family of six this was certainly a blow to the gut. We budgeted, lived within our means, planned our meals, and made wise financial choices. No new credit cards, no eating out, no cable or other subscription services, etc. It was a long and boring 4 years however, we are now 100% debt free. My salary has also increased by $40k annually which launched us into the mid six figures range. Life is good. Note* if you're working to pay off debt, stay focused. It's not fun but damn it's liberating when you're done. [link] [comments]  |
| Inherited enough to pay off home. Do that or invest for growth? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 12:55 PM PDT $150K outstanding on home. 22 years left at $1200/month @ 4%, after refis. Pay off and back what would have been house payment, or invest it hoping for more than 4%? The payoff is a certain 4% but the market makes no guarantees. [link] [comments]  |
| My Family is Getting Kicked Out Posted: 26 Oct 2018 05:41 PM PDT Please excuse the formatting, I am on mobile. I'm 17 with paid college courses. My mom just divorced my dad in 2017 and we moved into this apartment, and were living paycheck to paycheck. My mom broke her leg and was unable to work for about 3-4 months, leaving us behind in rent. I've been looking for a job and found one that I unfortunately can only work two days and am unable to really help out. I love my mom but she doesn't make the best financial decisions. She buys a brand new 2018 car while behind on rent, and she gets mad at me when I tell her we're buying more food than we need. We're already on food stamps as her income is below the poverty line. I'm at a complete loss on what to do because this isn't something I can fix. I'm so worried about my little sister. My dad is abusive and we cut all contact with him and his family. My mom's side family are all in Japan, and are unable to help. My older sister is just 19 and is not financially stable enough to aid us. Please, I don't know what to do or if I can help. [link] [comments]  |
| How do I pay taxes for money I make from selling adult content? Am I a small business now? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 12:54 PM PDT I'm a fairly popular poster on GW subreddits. I started charging for extra content about a year ago. It began as more of an experiment to see if I could get some extra pocket money, but it has kinda blown up. I am now making about $2500/month and it's steadily increasing. I also work full-time at a "real" job. My question is this - how do I go about declaring my extra income so that I can pay taxes like a good citizen? Is what I'm doing legal? Can I claim expenses such as lingerie and sex toys, since I use them when I create content? Extra info: I live in Canada. The platform I use is Onlyfans. I earn in USD, and Onlyfans sends my earnings into a third party account. I convert those funds into a CAD account, then wire the CAD into my personal bank account. I don't know if any of that makes a difference. I'm truly clueless and I hope I haven't gotten myself in too deep! I just want to be a good, law-abiding citizen! :) [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2018 07:05 PM PDT Just to get this off my chest. I'm a recently married 19 year old. Who last year got charged with false charges and had to pay 15,000 over the course of 14 months. It rounded to 200$ every Monday. Well today, I sold my car for a little under 10k. I paid off the remaining 1000 of debt. And put 9000 into savings. I took a new job this week as a cook for 16/hr. So finally. I'm 19,married,new job, with over 10k in the bank. I'm finally fully happy and stress free for the first time in a long time. And yes, we do have another car. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2018 06:54 PM PDT I know that you can put stocks and mutual funds into an IRA in order to save and earn money for retirement but I was curious to know if IRAs from credit unions & banks are the same as the ones from brokerage firms. Not all banks are brokerage firms so I was wondering if the IRAs they offer also have the ability to have stocks and mutual funds in them. Can you only put money in IRAs from credit unions & banks or do they work the same as the ones offered by brokerage firms? [link] [comments]  |
| Pregnant wife let go with one month severance, is unemployment an option? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 01:05 PM PDT My wife is due in December with our second child (yay) and she was let go from her full time position today. One month of severance is less than the 6 to 8 weeks of maternity leave she would have gotten. No one is going to hire a 7 and a half month pregnant woman, and while I do pretty well we still need her income. Can she qualify for unemployment or are we SOL? Edit: I don't think she is being singled out or discriminated against, a lot of people from her office have been let go this month as a mass downsizing effort. Still a dick move to lay off a pregnant woman. [link] [comments]  |
| Someone paid for their Uber with my Chase credit card through Paypal Posted: 26 Oct 2018 04:05 PM PDT Is my credit card compromised, or my Paypal? What should I do now? Do I have to cancel my card? This is my first time encountering something like this, so I don't know how to handle/ prevent a second occurrence. I'd appreciate it if you could give me some advice! [link] [comments]  |
| Should I spend my $20k in savings on student loans or don’t touch it? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 11:40 AM PDT I'm 23 years old and a year and a half out of college. I've managed to save $20k in savings in the first year of working. Originally I was planning on not touching it, adding to it, and eventually using it for a down payment on a house, or just as an emergency stash for when/if something comes up. I've recently been thinking about putting it towards my $24k student loan debt. My husbands mindset is to keep the money and just accept the $275 a month for the next 9 years, but I am starting to think living debt free until we're ready to buy a house might be nice. Thoughts? [link] [comments]  |
| 19 and want to move out of my parent's house Posted: 26 Oct 2018 05:42 PM PDT As the title states, I'm 19 years old. I'm a full-time college student and I have a job at a grocery that pays minimum wage. My family has always been practically poor, so a lot, if not all, of my paychecks go towards helping my parents and sibling. However, my parents treat me like a 12 year old, disrespect my privacy, and make me feel trapped. We live an hour away from both my University and my sibling's school, so I take her every day so my parents don't have to, since they (and I) work in the town we live in. Like I said, they treat me like a child despite the fact I do a lot that I'm not supposed to, like pay bills they're overdue on, take my sis to school, buy groceries for the family, work as many hours as I can manage just to give them my paychecks. I feel very underappreciated. They're response to this is always 'we've taken care of you for all these years, we don't owe you anything'. They don't let me lock my door, they randomly ask for my phone and get mad at me when I try to exit out of anything weird I was looking at, when I'm gaming and use my mic, they listen and comment on what I say (I haven't used mic in about a year because of this), they criticise my clothing and my interests, common insults they call me are asshole, lazy, nobody, bitch, and gay (there's nothing wrong with being gay, but the disgust in their eyes still makes me feel like shit) if I'm doing something important and they call me, I have to immediately stop whatever it is and come to them, I don't have any friends, but when people rarely want to invite me to things, my parents interrogate me about who they are and what type of people they are and if they don't like them, they'll talk shit about them until I say I won't talk to them anymore. If they get pissed off and yell at me, and I try to defend myself, they'll say I'm disrespecting them. If they get pissed off at me and I don't say anything, they'll say I'm disrespecting them. I've broken down crying so many times I can't count due to the way they judge me and talk shit about me. They want to control me. I don't even really have access to my own bank account. Yesterday I asked my mom if I could buy myself something online and she wouldn't let me because she wanted to use the money to pay some sort of bill. I understand that bills are important, but the item I wanted was around $5 and it's been months since I spent money on myself. I'm not going to ramble anymore, you get the idea. Anyway, I'm trying to figure out if I should just move in the college dorms or try to get my own place at a really cheap apartment? Both would eat up practically all of my money, but I just need to get the fuck out of here or something. I've tried to explain to my family how they make me feel many times and each one resulted in them guilt tripping me and making me feel like an inconsiderate asshole and my mother threatening to cut me off completely and not provide for me anymore. Since I'm still living with them, I do rely on them for a lot. My car note is high and my mom helps me pay for it. I help them pay bills and they pay my phone bill. They help me with my school things and fees I have to pay, since I have a shitty job and can't do it myself. It's hard to find a job that pays well when you're a full-time student that lives an hour away from University and has to be free to pick up your sibling in the middle of the day even if you don't have class that day. I'm just... So fucking frustrated and beaten down. I feel so trapped. I can't be myself around my family, I don't even have the privacy to watch fucking porn when I want haha, or talk on the phone without someone yelling from the other room 'Who're you on the phone with?!?', or play videogames without someone bursting through my door asking me 'don't you have something better to do like clean/do homework/study? No? Well do this for me instead of actually relaxing.' And oh God, my parents don't understand that school is exhausting for me. I take 6 classes and in between working, waking up at 5 am everyday to take my sibling to school when my classes don't start until 11 (I just sit in the library until), and dealing with chronic depression, by the end of the day, all I want to do is curl up and cry myself to sleep. But no, none of that matters to them. All I do is sit on my ass in a desk all day. I guess this is more of a rant than anything. But yeah, depressed full-time college student making minimum wage wants to risk being completely broke to leave parents. Edit: I'd just like to add that my parents can be good people. They have honestly taken pretty good care of me these past 19 years. Things were a lot better before I got older and stopped trying to do everything they wanted me to do. Until recently, I've let them make my decisions for me. They don't like that and I know it's because they're afraid I'll fail in life. But they're going about it the wrong way and coming off as way too controlling and overbearing. They won't let me be who I am, and if they do, I can expect harsh criticism and guilt tripping. [link] [comments]  |
| Why are index funds the go to long term investments? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 02:59 PM PDT Are there any other options I could consider? I'm looking to invest £20k, and regular £2k monthly investments. I've been told time and time again that long term index fund investing is the sure fire way to watch compound growth take place. Isn't there a risk I could leave in 30 years with less money than I put in? [link] [comments]  |
| Getting married soon, I'm an aggressive budgeter but my SO is not Posted: 26 Oct 2018 01:12 PM PDT I utilize YNAB and custom made spreadsheets since I have multiple credit cards (never carry a balance, just collect points) and balance everything daily. My SO uses a different method by placing pieces of their paycheck into different savings accounts and not as OCD about tracking every transaction like myself. We are of the opinion to merge accounts, but does anyone have suggestions to best take care of this while merging our different styles? [link] [comments]  |
| Starting life at 30 and need advice on a car situation. Any help is greatly appreciated!! Posted: 26 Oct 2018 05:28 PM PDT So I am a reformed alcoholic. A year ago I met a man who held my hand through the process of obtaining my insurance license and now I work for him. As I build my client base I am netting 556 a week. In that year I have been able to obtain everything I need for an apartment and it's been a slow process just getting up on my feet. I've got 1k in a savings account in the bank. Bills monthly are as follows: Rent: 600 Food: 200 Car insurance: 70 Cell Phone: 70 Utilities: 90 And the rest has been going to apartment amenities and admittedly, I am terrible at saving as I should most definitely have saved more at this point. My question is this; I drive a crappy car that's about to give out on me and wont make it through the harsh winter assuredly. I've always had terrible luck buying cheap cars and would love just to be able to get something modest and dependable that will last me even five years straight. My score is 593, and I cant get approved for a car loan as my score combined with never having stayed in a job more than a year cant get me approved. The car could go at any given day now. What should I do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!! [link] [comments]  |
| Been broke my whole life. New job is a total game changer for me. How should I prioritize? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 08:03 PM PDT Some background... I've spent most of my adult life just barely scraping by. Spent the past 3 years living out of my car and working gigs to make minimum payments with $0 left over in a good month. Last year I decided to do something about that and studied my ass off and somehow leveled up from straight up poverty to a new job that earns me over 90k after taxes. While the opportunity is a dream come true, it doesn't come with much job security. Basically, my employment can end at any time (although I don't expect it to, but can't hurt to plan for the worst as I'm accustomed to doing). My current debts are one auto loan with $8.5k principle left 4% APR and about $7k in credit card debt both around 19-20% APR. My instinct is telling me to attack the ever living shit out of that debt and try to clear it in 6-9 months. While this feels like the right move and every fiber of my being wants to drive these banks to hell... I've been asking myself whether it wouldn't be smarter to focus on building an emergency fund first before/while attacking the debt with the full brunt of my herculean (at least to me) salary. My current best case scenario financial plan (dependent on not getting fired within the next 2 years) is to ditch this debt, save up for a house, and sustain a comfortable lifestyle (and probably burn give or take $2500/mo on rent, food, misc, etc). TBH I'm a little lost since I've never had money like this before. Has anyone been in a similar situation? What wise decisions do you wish you had made? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2018 07:38 PM PDT |
| [CA] In practice, how much more well-protected are 401k plans compared to IRAs? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 04:02 PM PDT I want to hear about how often either account type gets cracked open for various legal reasons. Not theory. I read some articles that say 401k is better protected, but they are all thin on whether it matters in the real world. My situation in case it matters: I'm currently semi-retired and have about $800K in an old employer's 401k plan that I won't need to touch for many years. My ex-employer is a large company in the S&P that's been around for a decade or two. I'm single with no kids. I'm torn between leaving the money there as long as possible for the added protection of ERISA and that reason alone vs. minor financial advantages from moving it (rolling it into an IRA where I'll have ever so slightly better investment options, be able to net an occasional $1K or $2K bonus, and save a trivial amount in fees). FWIW, I do have umbrella insurance. (I tried asking this on /r/legaladvice and they told me very firmly to post here. I hope this is allowed.) [link] [comments]  |
| Moved to US, sold my car from back home, best way to transfer the money? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 11:30 AM PDT Howdy, folks. This isn't too complicated - basically I visited my partner (now wife) over in the US a few months back and in the process decided I wanted to finally commit fully and just live there, so I've been in the process of a green card application up to today. In the meantime, I had a car back home in the UK, that now my mother has sold for a profit of 4,000 pounds. Me and my wife would like to buy our own car, and in any case I want to figure out the best way to get that money exchanged over to the US without losing absurd amounts in exchange fees (we've used paypal for smaller UK to US bank transfers but think there might be a smarter option for this). Whoever can help, we'd be very grateful! Thanks, and have a great day. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 26 Oct 2018 08:00 AM PDT I get a 20% shift differential because I work nights. They made an error by imputing my hours as day shift so my check is almost 500 dollars short this pay period. I live paycheck to paycheck and the shorted pay is about 30 dollars short of rent cost (due in a few days) with nothing left over for food or gas, both of which Im desperately low on. Im in a position where I will get a 120 dollar late fee if I hold off on rent until the next check or eat overdraft fees. My employer said I have to wait and I didnt really say anything after. But do I have options? Can I put a little heat on them to expidiate paying the shorted funds so I can just go on as normal and not stress about life for the next two weeks? Do I have any leverage to have them reimburse me for overdraft or late fees since the error is on their end if I do have to wait two weeks? Thank you. Edit: Thanks everyone for your inputs. I contacted HR and let them know the situation and will be paid out my missing funds on Monday ! [link] [comments]  |
| Currently homeless, about to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy (OR) Posted: 26 Oct 2018 08:51 AM PDT Hi, My situation is particularly unique. For the past few years I've been dealing with homelessness. Unfortunately, like many people dealing with homelessness, I suffer from pain which has been the reason why holding a job down has been difficult, hence the homelessness. I don't come from any kind of wealth, but I was able to get a decent education (read, some college) and I'm hopeful for my future in that regard. However, despite my relative luck, I was not blessed or bestowed with any kind of aptitude for financial responsibility, and as a result I have outstanding medical bills, multiple collection agencies with pending accounts, and a number of fairly serious bank charge offs. I realized recently that part of my situation I'm currently in is due to my credit and institutional financial standing, and that to make progress out of the current condition I'm in, learning degrees of financial responsibility is an absolute requisite. Which brings us to the consideration of Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. After some legal consultations, I decided if I do file for bankruptcy it would be a Chapter 7, because in my current circumstance, and likely any circumstance for some time coming, I will have no ability to make payments on any other kind of Bankruptcy, and furthermore, I don't have anything to lose really, other than 7 years of marred credit, which I'd be dealing with regardless unless I won the lotto (which I'm still pissed I didn't win). I have a few questions:
Thanks for the advice! edit: punctuation FINAL EDIT: After gaining the perspective of the commenters here, I decided against filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. The rationale here is that it would likely make more financial sense to wait out the remainder of the time until the debts I'm currently dealing with fall off my credit score, then work with a credit union to open a line of secured credit to build my score back. This also abbreviates the amount of time I'll be dealing with the complications of having poor credit and debt while being severely resourceless, whereas in filing for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, I'd be dealing with that for at least 7 more years. This advice seems to be particularly applicable to me because of just how severe my financial circumstance is, in that what I'm currently accountable for is different than what a typical person with stable finances would be accountable for. Also, I received some great personal advice from some helpful people in this thread, which I really appreciate. I'm resting much easier with the attitude that I can fix my credit later, that it's not as huge of a factor as I was previously thinking it was (in my circumstance), and that I should focus my attention on finding housing and immediate financial affluence and that fixing my credit will come as a result of my focus there. I greatly appreciate all of your responses! [link] [comments]  |
| When is a credit card considered delinquent? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 06:50 AM PDT My dad found out I have a credit card, and then found out that I have a balance on said card. He did so by rummaging through my mail, but that's a whole other can of worms. He went through my wallet, found my card, and cut it up. My balance is from tuition, books, and gas. I owe probably $1700, always pay the minimum (~$50), often pay 3-4x (~$150-200), and spend as much as I can from my checking account, but sometimes those last days until payday get rough and I need gas. My balance never goes up (ignoring interest). I know what my payment is beforehand, I have a percentage of my check going into a savings account, which I collect interest then pay what was deposited. I never spend more than what I pay. I even try to take interest into account, subtracting about ~$35 from what I "can spend." I'm down from $3000 in 5 months. The only reason I have a balance at all is I started community college and needed to pay tuition. My dad screamed at me that having a balance means I'm delinquent. I thought delinquent was when you stopped paying altogether? Discover hasn't said anything to me beyond sending me my statements and one time froze my card because I forgot to tell them I was traveling. I'm 19, I'm not too knowledgable in this stuff yet. I know Discover says they will not reissue cards to delinquent accounts, but I really need that emergency ability to buy things. Am I outta luck? [link] [comments]  |
| Warnings/Advice for 19 y/o with Future Student Debt? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 12:00 PM PDT Hi everyone. So basically when I graduate I'll be about $60-70k in debt (I'm in too deep to quit so no judgement, please). I was just wondering what precautions or steps I can take to be in the best situation possible. I'm constantly seeing stories of others with unbearable debt and it's quite scary. I am looking for advice from someone who has gone through the student debt nightmare and can tell me explicitly what to and what not to do. For reference, I have (basically) no CC debt (I pay my two cards off monthly), I live quite frugally, and have no car. Thank you!! [link] [comments]  |
| Married with two 401k's and one 457? Max out three (3) x $18.5k per year? Posted: 26 Oct 2018 10:47 AM PDT Hello PF - long time lurker and recently married. Wondering if anyone has ever maxed out three tax advantaged accounts. I have a 401k and a 457 available to me. My wife has a 401k available to her. Currently, both 401k's are maxed out for 2018. Can I start stuffing the 457 up to $18.5k this year as well or is there a limit of ~$37k? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
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